Mischevious Muses
22/04/2011 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaThe serpent is a member of a public speaking group. Due to a gradual decline in active members to the point of imminent demise, we have decided to amalgamate with another group facing the same problem.
So it's goodbye to early Friday morning meetings and hello to slinking in the city at 5.30pm on Wednesdays
Unlike the others most of whom are pen pushers, the serpent cannot simply turn up after work on a Wednesday and after slinking back to the Lair and scrubbing the scales often feel like nothing more than a snooze or lounging about in the Lair rather than rushing off to Silver City to commune with a bunch of boring old farts.
They call themselves Eastenders but Deadenders would be a much better title for this crotchety club and this week it was proved beyond all possible doubt
One of the activities we indulge in is called meeting procedure - where motions are moved, amended and voted on. There's one part of the meeting devoted to real business which is actually binding on the club and the other is an exercise which is a wonderful excuse for general rabble rousing and training in the dark arts of controlling the agenda for one's own evil purposes and doing it all above board
It's usually boring stuff about moving the meeting times, having pizza or even having a summer solstice sunrise meeting where all members attend naked (guess who proposed that one?)
On this one thing the Deadenders are much more innovative. They occasionally do role playing kind of things. A recent one was pretending to be the board of some British rail company proposing to build a rail line on some aqueduct in the middle of nowhere
Izzie spoke against the proposal claiming that the land in question was owned by the Gringotts Goblins and they would not take kindly to having their territory invaded.
With a bit more thought, would have been more entertaining to claim that we cannot build a railway line on the aqueduct as one already exists. But being the Hogwarts express, mere muggles such as the other committee members cannot see it.
So it was with great amusement that the serpent picked up one of the new agendas at the end of this particular meeting and seen her name listed as being the proposer of the motion for meeting procedure on the meeting scheduled for 20th April
The evil instincts rose up straight away. How could we possibly resist the temptation of such a delicious date
After some last minute slinking on Google, it was time to organize the battle plans.
A copy of the motion needs to be given to the critic and the chairperson of the meeting. With 20/20 hindsight should have made a copy for everyone so there would be no doubt about the serious matter under consideration
It would have been nice to have had some 'genuine' letterheads to add to the authenticity of the occasion but lack of a printer prevented that.
So in her best Gothic script and with a bright shiny brown inked stamp marked Confidential, the serpent presented her motion in writing to the two relevant parties
"Reichsicherheitshauptamt
Prinz Albrecht Strasse 666
Berlin 2000
AGM Agenda
Wednesday 20. April 1938
Item 1 That we XXXXXXXXXX"
Did write what it was but blanked it out as it will appear later in the serpent's speech
Was more than a bit peeved to turn up at the meeting and discover that only 9 members were there including the critic and chairman - neither of whom can play any role in the meeting procedure protocol.
With a proposer of the motion, another to second the motion and at least two to speak against that left only three others to either speak for, make amendments or generally cause chaos and craziness. In other words not much was going to happen at all
Unlike the previous 'let's pretend' meeting procedure episode did not give any background to the story but used the wording of the speech to convey all relevant information
"Guten Abend, Meine Geehrte Damen und Herren
My dearest and most loyal fellow members of the NSDAP, I thank you for your attendance at this very special meeting of the party
As our beloved Leader is presently attending various birthday celebrations, he has requested me to propose this motion on his behalf
I trust you will give it the consideration that it deserves
After the astounding success of last month's Anschluss which received a record 112% vote of approval from the Austrian electorate, it is time to continue our expansion of the Reich
While the Sudetenland may be the next item on our acquisition list, it alone will not be sufficient to provide the raw materials and resources worthy of our ambitions
We need more resources, more room, more land and safe locations for lots of toxic waste dumps
so therefore I propose that we invade Poland"
We had one enthusiastic member who wanted to invade Russia too and another bleeding heart liberal who offered his resignation from the party
One twisted critter wanted to replace the word invasion with 'incursion" (the abuse of which had been the subject of last week's "Word of the Day") and another softie wanted to replace the word 'invade' to 'co-operate with'
The chairman wisely rejected this amendment as being contrary to the spirit of the original motion
But the proof of the pudding came at the end of the meeting where the critic claimed that there was not enough back ground to the motion - and he was one of the two in possession of the agenda letterhead where it stated quite clearly that it was a Nazi party meeting in April 1938
But the absolute killer was when he said that the chairman should not have accepted the motion for discussion as invasion of another country is illegal (here in Australia, if a chairperson allows discussion of a motion that it is illegal and it gets passed and then acted upon, they can be personally prosecuted)
The serpent had already declared in the right of reply that voters should not concern themselves with mere legal niceties. That invading other countries was not only legal in Nazi Germany but actually compulsory
Such fuddy duddyness is beyond sad and pathetic. This old fart is constantly making snarky comments about the newbies especially when they forget to address him by his grand title of Freeman rather than Speaker. He makes caustic comments about ordering breakfast if the meeting starts late which it has been doing of late but largely because one of their number who is rostered on to chair the meeting will simply not bother to show up and one of ours ends up taking on the role instead. Chairing a meeting is a big job even if only 8 speakers turn up
He considers the new arrangement to be a take over rather than a merger and on more than one occasion the serpent has used the word "Anschluss' to describe his attitude towards us
The term ends in June so it is most unlikely that evil Izzie will get to propose any more motions. We do have to present a five minute speech next week on the topic of "The Voyage"
As yet completely uninspired.
So it's goodbye to early Friday morning meetings and hello to slinking in the city at 5.30pm on Wednesdays
Unlike the others most of whom are pen pushers, the serpent cannot simply turn up after work on a Wednesday and after slinking back to the Lair and scrubbing the scales often feel like nothing more than a snooze or lounging about in the Lair rather than rushing off to Silver City to commune with a bunch of boring old farts.
They call themselves Eastenders but Deadenders would be a much better title for this crotchety club and this week it was proved beyond all possible doubt
One of the activities we indulge in is called meeting procedure - where motions are moved, amended and voted on. There's one part of the meeting devoted to real business which is actually binding on the club and the other is an exercise which is a wonderful excuse for general rabble rousing and training in the dark arts of controlling the agenda for one's own evil purposes and doing it all above board
It's usually boring stuff about moving the meeting times, having pizza or even having a summer solstice sunrise meeting where all members attend naked (guess who proposed that one?)
On this one thing the Deadenders are much more innovative. They occasionally do role playing kind of things. A recent one was pretending to be the board of some British rail company proposing to build a rail line on some aqueduct in the middle of nowhere
Izzie spoke against the proposal claiming that the land in question was owned by the Gringotts Goblins and they would not take kindly to having their territory invaded.
With a bit more thought, would have been more entertaining to claim that we cannot build a railway line on the aqueduct as one already exists. But being the Hogwarts express, mere muggles such as the other committee members cannot see it.
So it was with great amusement that the serpent picked up one of the new agendas at the end of this particular meeting and seen her name listed as being the proposer of the motion for meeting procedure on the meeting scheduled for 20th April
The evil instincts rose up straight away. How could we possibly resist the temptation of such a delicious date
After some last minute slinking on Google, it was time to organize the battle plans.
A copy of the motion needs to be given to the critic and the chairperson of the meeting. With 20/20 hindsight should have made a copy for everyone so there would be no doubt about the serious matter under consideration
It would have been nice to have had some 'genuine' letterheads to add to the authenticity of the occasion but lack of a printer prevented that.
So in her best Gothic script and with a bright shiny brown inked stamp marked Confidential, the serpent presented her motion in writing to the two relevant parties
"Reichsicherheitshauptamt
Prinz Albrecht Strasse 666
Berlin 2000
AGM Agenda
Wednesday 20. April 1938
Item 1 That we XXXXXXXXXX"
Did write what it was but blanked it out as it will appear later in the serpent's speech
Was more than a bit peeved to turn up at the meeting and discover that only 9 members were there including the critic and chairman - neither of whom can play any role in the meeting procedure protocol.
With a proposer of the motion, another to second the motion and at least two to speak against that left only three others to either speak for, make amendments or generally cause chaos and craziness. In other words not much was going to happen at all
Unlike the previous 'let's pretend' meeting procedure episode did not give any background to the story but used the wording of the speech to convey all relevant information
"Guten Abend, Meine Geehrte Damen und Herren
My dearest and most loyal fellow members of the NSDAP, I thank you for your attendance at this very special meeting of the party
As our beloved Leader is presently attending various birthday celebrations, he has requested me to propose this motion on his behalf
I trust you will give it the consideration that it deserves
After the astounding success of last month's Anschluss which received a record 112% vote of approval from the Austrian electorate, it is time to continue our expansion of the Reich
While the Sudetenland may be the next item on our acquisition list, it alone will not be sufficient to provide the raw materials and resources worthy of our ambitions
We need more resources, more room, more land and safe locations for lots of toxic waste dumps
so therefore I propose that we invade Poland"
We had one enthusiastic member who wanted to invade Russia too and another bleeding heart liberal who offered his resignation from the party
One twisted critter wanted to replace the word invasion with 'incursion" (the abuse of which had been the subject of last week's "Word of the Day") and another softie wanted to replace the word 'invade' to 'co-operate with'
The chairman wisely rejected this amendment as being contrary to the spirit of the original motion
But the proof of the pudding came at the end of the meeting where the critic claimed that there was not enough back ground to the motion - and he was one of the two in possession of the agenda letterhead where it stated quite clearly that it was a Nazi party meeting in April 1938
But the absolute killer was when he said that the chairman should not have accepted the motion for discussion as invasion of another country is illegal (here in Australia, if a chairperson allows discussion of a motion that it is illegal and it gets passed and then acted upon, they can be personally prosecuted)
The serpent had already declared in the right of reply that voters should not concern themselves with mere legal niceties. That invading other countries was not only legal in Nazi Germany but actually compulsory
Such fuddy duddyness is beyond sad and pathetic. This old fart is constantly making snarky comments about the newbies especially when they forget to address him by his grand title of Freeman rather than Speaker. He makes caustic comments about ordering breakfast if the meeting starts late which it has been doing of late but largely because one of their number who is rostered on to chair the meeting will simply not bother to show up and one of ours ends up taking on the role instead. Chairing a meeting is a big job even if only 8 speakers turn up
He considers the new arrangement to be a take over rather than a merger and on more than one occasion the serpent has used the word "Anschluss' to describe his attitude towards us
The term ends in June so it is most unlikely that evil Izzie will get to propose any more motions. We do have to present a five minute speech next week on the topic of "The Voyage"
As yet completely uninspired.
